Construction for the modernization at Foothills Composite High School has briefly been put on pause following last weeks gas leak.

A worker inadvertently ruptured a gas line at the school site which resulted in students and staff evacuating the building.

Drew Chipman, assistant superintendent of the Foothills School Division, says a safety consultant has been brought in to do a thorough review of the safety processes.

"The contractor has done a great job with the school but safety is our paramount concern and we just want to make sure that everybody is comfortable with the way things are moving forward and as a result of that we're getting in a third party safety consultant to do a thorough review and let us know how things are looking."

Chipman says the review with the consultant began on Friday and the division wants to make sure everyone's on the same page before work resumes.

"It might take most of this week, maybe all this week, but we want to get it right. We don't want to rush it just so we can get back to where construction's happening," he says. "We want to make sure that everybody is clear on what their roles are and that everybody is confident that everything's been done to make sure that students and staff are safe."

He adds the evacuation went smoothly with staff, students, and the subcontractors cooperating as they should and alarms and mechanical systems operating accordingly.